ADS-7 I used for so many years ate 6 nine volts at a time; took me a while to figure out that a certain, well-advertised name brand of nine volts commonly came with loose battery posts. Missed a nice 1854 Seated Liberty quarter that way when my search buddy came over to check on my problem. As I was fumbling around searching for which of the 6 batteries was the guilty s.o.b., told him to look under the old sidewalk just in front of me. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

If the signal changes after you use the probe without feeling anything, you likely pierced some tinfoil. Holey tinfoil reacts differently than whole tinfoil. If you have a deep target that you just can't seem to find, check to see if it might be a buried pipe. Elongate objects give good strong signals in one direction and weaker signals in another.

Eventually someone will come to you with a story about a buried hoard or lost treasure that Uncle Albert and Aunt Alberta buried on the old homestead. What should you do? Chances are that the story is just that, a story, but sometimes there is truth amongst the smoke. A number of years ago, an acquaintance of mine recovered 70 silver dollars from just such a hoard. Suppose you do go out and find something. And your good ol' buddy landowner who invited you out, suddenly gets big eyed with greed, thanks you, and then tells you to get the h*** off of his land.

Protect yourself by writing up a contract before hand. Terms should be negotiable, but a 30% share in finds plus expenses (including an hourly rate for your time) seems reasonable to me. That way when you find